If Kerry departs, dominoes will fall

THE HOT political story after Tuesday's election wasn't so much about the results, but the game of political dominoes should President Barack Obama tap U.S. Sen. John Kerry for secretary of state.

Many pundits interviewed last week agree that Kerry is on the short list to replace Hillary Clinton.

The pundits also agree that with $5 million in the bank, Marty Meehan, the former 5th District rep and now UMass Lowell chancellor, is a top contender in a special Senate election should Kerry resign.

Other names were also floated, mostly members of the state's all-Democratic congressional delegation. Other than Scott Brown, the list of Republican challengers was short. Toward the end of the week, however, the name of former Bay State governor William Weld was circulating.

Fueling the speculation is that Weld, who ran unsuccessfully against Kerry in 1996, recently joined the law firm Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo P.C. and ML Strategies, the firm's government relations and consulting unit.

Weld, who most recently worked as a partner in the New York office of McDermott Will & Emery, will be based in Boston.

Weld resigned as governor in 1997 when President Bill Clinton nominated him to be the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, a nomination that eventually fell through amid congressional opposition. Weld also served as a federal prosecutor for seven years.

MSNBC pundit Rachel Maddow got in on the act Thursday night during an interview with retiring 4th District Rep. Barney Frank.

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Acknowledging the high likelihood that Kerry is Cabinet-bound, perhaps Gov. Deval Patrick, too, Maddow asked Frank if he would make himself "available" to serve. No, he said quickly, adding he wants to write, teach and spend more time with his spouse, Tewksbury native Jim Ready.

LOWELL STATE Rep. David Nangle took some heat from fellow Democrats for endorsing Brown. On Thursday, Nangle said he thought his endorsement of Brown actually helped his victory over Republican challenger Martin Burke.

"Everyone said -- oh, my God -- he's in trouble now," Nangle said. "But I think it helped beca use never before in any election I've been in have I seen my numbers this high."

Nangle, who beat Burke 9,125 votes to 2,454 votes, represents the 17th Middlesex District, an area that includes parts of Chelmsford and the only neighborhood in Lowell that saw Brown score a decisive victory: Belvidere.

"I had the highest win percentage of anyone in the Merrimack Valley Tuesday," said Nangle. "Obviously endorsements don't translate much."

CITY COUNCILOR Rita Mercier also very publicly endorsed Brown. She said Thursday she was unsure what impact her endorsement had on the Brown-Warren voting figures in Lowell.

Mercier, who held signs for Brown outside the Reilly School on election day for several hours, said she heard from a number of Democrats who told her privately they planned to vote for Brown. Other Democrats were frustrated with her decision. Mercier and Nangle did not receive an invite to the legislative breakfast the Greater Lowell Area Democrats recently held.

"I have to hand it to the Warren campaign for turning out their supporters," she said.

Mercier did have a strong opinion on Councilor Vesna Nuon's comments this week that many new registered voters in the city don't know who Mercier is.

"His statement did not sit well with me," Mercier told The Column. "I hope those voters he is referring to did not vote blindly and knew where the people they were voting for stand on the issues."

CITY COUNCILOR Marty Lorrey's request that City Manager Bernie Lynch contact the proper department about developing a program for evening cooking classes veered into comedy territory.

A few weeks ago, Lorrey pushed for an adult recreation park. On Tuesday, he also filed a motion for the city to develop a self-defense program for women.

To get the cooking class rolling, Mercier walked over and handed Lorrey a beef stew starter kit with carrots, potatoes, onions and celery.

"If I'm cooking, it better be microwaveable," Lorrey joked.

Mayor Patrick Murphy later asked if there were further comments on the cooking-class motion, and Lorrey replied, "Councilor (John) Leahy is eyeing my food over here already."

MAYBE THE self-defense class Lorrey has proposed could be held in the room in the Lowell Regional Water Utility garage that used to be a gym.

The Sun reported Tuesday that police asked former office manager JoAnn Gitschier about the gym during their interview of her this past Monday.

The Sun's report prompted Lynch to ask Executive Director Daniel Lahiff to show him the gym during a visit to the plant Tuesday.

Lynch got to see the infamous room, which was also where anabolic steroids were found on the property, but was told there has been no gym in some time.

According to utility sources, the former gym included punching bags, speed bags, elliptical bikes, treadmills, and even some sort of rock climbing machine.

TYPICALLY, A losing candidate calls to concede the race and congratulate to the victor. On Tuesday night, the campaigns of U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas and Carlisle Republican Jon Golnik never connected.

The Golnik campaign said it tried to connect when it was clear the results were not going their way. Golnik's press aide Alicia Preston called Tsongas deputy campaign manager Jesse Bragg twice and left voicemails.

Golnik said his campaign was waiting to connect with Tsongas before he gave his concession speech. But Preston did not hear back and later found out Tsongas was already in the midst of giving her victory speech when Preston had called.

The Tsongas campaign did not call back after the Democrat's speech. Some in the Golnik camp were a bit miffed.

"Once the news networks had called it, we thought it was appropriate to declare victory and have the congresswoman speak to all her supporters gathered," Bragg said. "We meant no disrespect."

AFTER BEING told that Littleton results showed state Rep. Jim Arciero on his way to a decisive win, challenger Valerie Wormell initially was gracious in defeat: "It's disappointing that the loss was as big ..."

She then quickly changed her mind.

"Screw it. I would not have challenged this kid if I felt he was doing his job. Quite frankly, he's not doing his job."

Her remarks echoed to The Sun-sponsored debate last month, at which Wormell attacked Arciero's record.

Tuesday night, she accused him of being partisan in his responses to constituent concerns.

Wormell, a Westford selectman, said she called Arciero shortly after he took office in 2009 and didn't hear back.

Arciero denied ever receiving a call from Wormell.

"If he's communicating with other selectmen, then it's on a partisan basis," she said.

She pledged to continue to "press him" in her role as selectman.

THE NO-LOVE-LOST battle between state Rep. James Miceli and challenger Douglas Sears continues. Following his landslide win, Miceli celebrated and called Sears the "dirtiest individual" he had ever run against. The following morning, Sears lobbed an email to media types that included a weekly newspaper editorial chastising Miceli for "perpetual wrangling and twisting of facts."

It was written during Miceli's first run for state rep ... in 1972.

IF STATE Sen. Barry Finegold, D-Andover, learned a lesson in his re-election, it's that politicians don't have to speak a foreign language to win immigrants' votes.

During his victory speech Tuesday night at Palmer's restaurant in downtown Andover, Finegold said he was nervous about his lack of Spanish-speaking skills. His challenger, Rep. Paul Adams, R-Andover, served two years in South Brazil as a Mormon missionary and touted his language skills as his advantage in forging relationships with Spanish-speaking constituents in Lawrence.

Finegold said he took a "crash course" in Spanish and memorized enough to introduce himself when knocking on the doors. But he glided to the victory in all four towns included in the 2nd Essex and Middlesex District, including Lawrence.

STATE SENATOR-ELECT Mike Barrett may have been the only candidate to literally perform on election night. In between checking results from the polls and talking with supporters at the Depot Building in Lexington, Barrett also picked up a guitar and sang a few tunes, including John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," with his folk band, Arl-Lex Five & Dime.

Barrett joked later that he ran for Senate to avoid having to devote more time to the band.

"How can I get these people off my back?" he said, drawing laughs. "It was just about a year ago that I realized, ah-ha, there's something else I know how to do."

The most popular band member Tuesday night appeared to be 7-year-old Quinn Eastburn of Arlington, who played fiddle and sang. A member of the band since he was 5, he wowed the audience with his cool demeanor and quick hands.

The band also includes Quinn's father, Chris, as well as a Harvard Kennedy School of Government professor, a Brigham & Women's nurse and an architect.

WE CAN add "picture editor" to the list of Dracut Town Clerk Kathy Graham's many duties following her Election Day scramble to correct the wording of the notice she had posted for voters to read at all four of the town's polling locations on Tuesday. The original posting that Graham taped to the doors of the polls, including the Dracut Library and senior center, asked voters to "please be patient" when faced with longer lines than usual for the presidential election.

The notice also advised inactive-status voters they may be asked to show "picture identification."

One Dracut resident, who recognized the state's election law doesn't specify a "photo"-ID requirement, notified the state's Elections Division and news media Tuesday morning of the discrepancy. Soon after, Graham was contacted by a state election official about the error, and quickly corrected it by crossing out the word "picture" in all the notices, she said.

Per state law, poll workers are instructed to ask inactive-status voters to show either a: "driver's license, government ID, current utility bill, current bank statement, current government check, current paycheck, current rent receipt, current mortgage statement, and/or voter acknowledgment letter," the rules state.

"It was a very interesting day," said Graham about a day that also saw a town-record 1,500 new voter registrants and 1,100 absentee ballot voters factor in Dracut's 75 percent turnout.

THE SAGA of "ridiculously good-looking surgery baby" continues.

A recap: Joey Powling was born in July to parents Joe and Sarah Powling of Dracut with a heart condition known as tetralogy of Fallot, or TOF (i.e., a hole in the heart). He had surgery to correct the defect on Oct. 25. Five days later, his uncle put a photo of Joey, with a sly smile and a nasty-looking incision down his chest, on reddit.com, a popular photo-sharing website, with the caption: "Chicks dig scars, right?"

Within a day, several other websites picked up the photo of the adorable infant, and it went viral, with millions of people around the world viewing the photo and/or commenting on it. One person dubbed Joey "ridiculously good-looking surgery baby," another "the most interesting baby in the world," and yet another "a baby Bruce Willis."

Last Monday, a column appeared in The Sun about Joey's online popularity. Within days of the column appearing, other websites picked up on Joey's story.

Since then, CNN Headline News' Evening Express ran a feature on the family, as did WBZ-TV Channel 4 news in Boston. The Powlings have also been on the morning show of popular Boston FM radio station Mix 104.1, and boston.com ran a story. And on Monday, the family will appear on a national morning news program.

While baby Joey is indeed "ridiculously good-looking" and does kind of resemble what a baby Bruce Willis may have looked like, the Powlings are hoping the exposure leads to more parents learning about TOF and having their unborn babies tested.

RETIRED TEWKSBURY police Lt. Dennis Peterson was the first witness the U.S. Attorney's Office called in the civil forfeiture fight over the Motel Caswell last week.

Peterson, head of security at Merrimack College in North Andover, is no stranger to high-profile cases.

Peterson was a key witness in the 2007 trial of former Tewksbury dispatcher Neil McLaughlin, who was convicted of assault to rape and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail. The McLaughlin case was sensitive because McLaughlin was Tewksbury Police Chief Alfred Donovan's brother-in-law.

During the civil trial in federal court, the government wants to seize the Motel Caswell, worth an estimated $1 million, due to drug arrests made there over the years.

Peterson testified that he took part in a number of drug arrests at the Tewksbury landmark, but had no idea if Russell Caswell, the owner, knew of any drug activity before the arrests.

Contributing to The Column this week: Enterprise Editor Christopher Scott, Managing Editor/Days Tom Zuppa, Lyle Moran and Evan Lips in Lowell, Lisa Redmond in the courts, Sarah Favot in Westford, Hiroko Sato in the 2nd Essex and Middlesex District and Grant Welker in Chelmsford.

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